Newport News High School Robotics Team Wins State Competition

On behalf of the Hampton Roads AUVSI Chapter, Robot Venture, First Robotics, HRMFFA, STEM and other well wishers…Congrats to Team Triple Helix “Techno Rock Stars” from Menchville High School in Newport News on your most significant victory at the 2009 Robot Rumble held at the Virginia State Fair in October!

The team’s ongoing success during this banner year showcases the health of the Hampton Roads FIRST Robotics program and spin-off from this most recent accomplishment will surely be far reaching.

The team got off to a rocky start in the competition due to a problem with the autonomous mode that masked itself as a network communications error.  It took three matches to finally resolve the problem, and the team was very fortunate to have been 2 – 1 when the problems were finally fixed.  From that point, there were a few unlucky matches in which some of the balls used to play the game became jammed in the Team Triple Helix robot.  By the end of the first day of the competition, however, all confidence had been regained in the Triple Helix robot. The drive team was performing admirably and ended the day with a record of 6-3-1, placing 5th in the rankings out of 14 teams.  On Sunday morning, the team continued to roll, but had a few very difficult opponents and some close matches, ending the qualification matches with a record of 9-4-1, placing in the number 4 seed position.

One of the team goals for the weekend was to implement a new scouting system developed by two students.  The system worked to perfection, and when it came time to select an alliance partner for the finals, team 384 – Sparky – from J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico, Virginia, was chosen. Sparky was ranked fairly low in the standings, but the scouting team was convinced that their team matched well with Team Triple Helix’s capabilities – a hunch that turned out to be right on the money.  

Triple Helix and Sparky stood together as alliance partners and took the quarterfinals in two matches (all of the elimination round matches are best two of three).  The first semifinals match was at loss at 61 to 52, but stiffened the team’s resolve in the second match by getting the critical win to stay alive.  Match 3 of the semifinals also fell to Team Triple Helix and on to the finals!

The alliance that Triple Helix and Sparky faced in the finals was led by team 1086, Blue Cheese, from Glenn Allen, Virginia.  Blue Cheese is one of the leading teams in Virginia at this time, as they are the winners of the last two NASA/VCU Regional events and were also the defending champions of the Robot Rumble coming into the weekend.  In addition, they have won the Chairman’s Award for the last two years at NASA/VCU, so they are an extremely well-rounded team.  

In short, Triple Helix and Sparky were up against a juggernaut. During the qualification matches, the opposing team learned to respect the robot’s maneuverability and firepower, and knew that they were going to have to play well to beat the alliance of Triple Helix and Sparky in the finals.

The first match in the finals went to the Blue Cheese-led alliance. The second match was a very tough and defensive battle, and Blue Cheese knew that the score was too close for comfort.  They launched a last second attempt for the win by throwing a Super Cell aimed at one of the alliance trailers to try to score a quick 15 points and walk away with the win.  It failed to work that way when they accidentally hit their own trailer with the shot!

The third match was every bit as exciting and a defensive struggle, as well.  At the end of the match neither alliance was certain of victory and there were a group of very stunned looking people standing around. No one, however, appeared to be more stunned than those on the Blue Cheese drive team, because they knew that they had committed another critical error by having their robot scoop up two Empty Cells at one time, which is a rule infraction and a 10 point penalty.  Since they knew that the Triple Helix and Sparky alliance had kept it close, they were afraid that they had lost.  

In the end, the Triple Helix alliance won by a mere two points with a strategy to apply unrelenting pressure to an obviously superior opponent and pull off the upset.  

Team Triple Helix is currently in training for another successful season in the FIRST Robotics Competition with a plan to compete in the Washington, D.C. Regional on March 4-6, 2010, and the Virginia Regional (what has been called NASA/VCU up until now) on March 18 – 20, 2010, so mark your calendars.  

Onward and Upward,
Mike French, Hampton Roads AUVSI
Frank Roberts, Hampton Roads Military & Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA) Executive Director
Matt Wilbur, Head Coach, Triple Helix (The Menchville Robotics Team) and FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2363

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